{"id":13247,"date":"2026-07-13T09:35:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/07\/13\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T09:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:35:55","slug":"sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/07\/13\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Neill\u2019s 20 best roles Culture | The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New Zealand actor, who has died at the age of 78, delivered stellar performances for more than 40 years. Here\u2019s our pick of his best roles <\/p>\n<p>Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests, the devil incarnate: Sam Neill delivered cracking performances for more than four decades. Before the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2026\/jul\/13\/sam-neill-death-actor-dies-aged-78\">death of the New Zealand actor on Monday at the age of 78<\/a>, <strong>Luke Buckmaster<\/strong> looked back at his career and ranked his 20 all-time greatest performances.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2025\/aug\/05\/sam-neil-actor-20-best-roles-films-performances\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2025\/aug\/05\/sam-neil-actor-20-best-roles-films-performances\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\">Read More<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/099a22ac159503f801b9dffb403eb5a339e801b8\/0_38_5494_4395\/master\/5494.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=6a3721644c54e8acf8e851d7decd1e1c\" title=\"Sam Neill\u2019s 20 best roles\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Zealand actor, who has died at the age of 78, delivered stellar performances for more than 40 years. Here\u2019s our pick of his best roles Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests, the devil incarnate: Sam Neill delivered cracking performances for more than four decades. Before the death of the New Zealand actor on Monday&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sam Neill\u2019s 20 best roles Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/07\/13\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sam Neill\u2019s 20 best roles Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New Zealand actor, who has died at the age of 78, delivered stellar performances for more than 40 years. Here\u2019s our pick of his best roles Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests, the devil incarnate: Sam Neill delivered cracking performances for more than four decades. Before the death of the New Zealand actor on Monday&#046;&#046;&#046;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/07\/13\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cultural Left\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-13T09:35:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/099a22ac159503f801b9dffb403eb5a339e801b8\/0_38_5494_4395\/master\/5494.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=6a3721644c54e8acf8e851d7decd1e1c\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/13\\\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/13\\\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/94cf8075fda504f02a6c2fba01de1a33\"},\"headline\":\"Sam Neill\u2019s 20 best roles Culture | The Guardian\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-13T09:35:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/13\\\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":83,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/13\\\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/5494-U5E8dm.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/13\\\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/13\\\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/13\\\/sam-neills-20-best-roles-culture-the-guardian\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sam Neill\u2019s 20 best roles Culture | The Guardian - 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